Day 22-28

Hello and welcome to the last week of the 28 day challenge.  This was a challenge for sure.  Each painting took at least 45 minutes.  I'm not sure why, except people would be seeing it and I was more careful than I would be if it was just for me.  My sketchbooks are for experimenting, working out problems with future painting and just for fun.  They are not as detailed or finished.  I rarely take that kind of time with my sketches, saving the careful painting for paintings I may show. Maybe next time I can let go a little more and show you the goofy, wonky sketches. 

That said, I enjoyed the challenge of doing more detailed sketches.  This time around I found I was better able to focus on finding inspiration.  I chose subjects based on what moved me that day and tried not to worry about whether it would be interesting to you or easy to paint and vowed to post it even if it bombed.  The only time I didnt was when I painted my son in law and he looked like someone beat him up!  That was a pride issue on my part and I didn't want to embarrass him! 

So lets talk about the last weeks sketches -- Day 22--

I bought some inspiration at the grocery store this week.  As I said before, I like to work from life.  These sunflowers screamed at me from across the produce section and I knew i had to paint them.  (I must have gotten them very fresh because these puppies are still perfect a week later!) I felt like this was really tight and I've worked hard to paint with a loser look, so it was interesting that all these paintings are all so tight.  Oh well.  Going forward I kept a focus on working a little looser. 

Day 23--

My dad fell asleep on the couch and the cat crawled up on him and fell asleep in the sun.  There was a lot of detail that I didn't have time for, like the cat and hands.  But I was pleased with how the face came out with the play of colors and the sun on his forehead. I also felt that this was a lose painting and I like that. I call it "Cat Nap".

Day 24--

Again from the grocery store the other day, I bought some beets.  I love to paint the colors in beets.  There are rusts, and purples and deep burgundy reds. And lets face it, who can resist the shape of leaves?  Its hard not to get carried away with all the details in the leaves, but I thought I kept them lose while keeping the detail on the beets.   I especially love the tap roots. 

Day 25--

This little sketch I did straight with a pen from a photo. I usually have to restate the lines I screw up and it ends up looking very messy, especially with architecture. This came out pretty well and I didn't restate much.  Its really small in comparison to the others, I think its maybe 4x5. 

Day 26 --

I had something else in mind for the day, but these were singing in the sun on my kitchen table where I've been painting for these weeks.  They are in a box, and I hated the box I painted, so I took it over to the sink and just washed it off!  Then I liked it just that way so I framed it with line and called it a day!  

Day 27--

Well, I don't a have day 28.  I KNEW I missed one!  Ok, I owe ya one!  But here is the last one, day 27. I have some pussy willows in a jar and like all the other things that are from nature I paint, I was thinking about why Im drawn to it.  I like the hard bark contrasted with the soft puffs and wondered if I could convey that feeling.  I loved the curves of the branches.  This painting was very meditative.  Something about the colors and the line.  The contrast of dark color and hard edges with light color and soft fussy edges.  I kept it to three branches because I wanted it simple.  I think this was one of my favorites from the 27 days.  

Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the sketches.  Try it yourself.  Its addicting!